Mountains, mountains, mountains !!

After we left fish camp on the Copper River, we got into some of the most beautiful country that surely must exist.  But then, we say that with every region we see; every mountain range we drive through and every little, quaint town we visit, I long to live there.

There is a place in the Yukon named the Wrangell-St. Elias National Preserve.  There, the mountains are the highest in Canada and even a peak that is higher than Mt. Whitney.  That’s what they tell us.  We don’t question; we just enjoy.

Mt. Sanford is 16,237 feet high while it’s very close neighbor, Mt. Drum, is 12,010 elevation.

Mt. Churchill is 15,638; Bear Mountain is 14,831, Mt. Wrangell is 14,163, Mt. Blackburn is 16,390 and Mt. Bona is 16,421.  Whew!  Them’s some mighty tall mountains!

We traveled the first day and made it back into the Yukon.

And true to the Alaska Highway rule:

Being so far from anywhere, we decided to change the flat on the 5th-wheel ourselves, when a nice man and his wife who were eating lunch in their motorhome in the pull-out, came over when they saw us getting the trailer blocked and ready to loosen the lug nuts and jack it up.  He offered to help and I sure wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.  (will someone tell me where that saying started out?)  The fella did the thinker stuff and I did the grunt work and together we got it changed.  Sure glad I bought an extra spare for the trailer.  Connie said:  “why change it?  It’s only flat on one side”.  I just smiled at her.

Kluane Lake, pronounced Klu.an.aey is a beautiful, large lake whose color is just amazing.  Must have something to do with the material on the bottom of the lake that reflects along with the fact that there is also glacial run-off coming in.  It is also the largest lake in the Yukon.

Next posting, we should be in British Columbia, leaving the Yukon Territory behind and a little closer to home.  We see a vehicle pulling a small trailer, with a couple of kids and what looks like everything the family owns in plastic containers piled high on top of the pick-up rack.  We passed them a couple of times and then they catch up down the road.  On one window they have written:  “Arizona or Bust!  Alaska, we will miss you”.  Connie and I miss Alaska already.  I told her son Brian that I wanted to stay in Alaska and he said, “bring my mother home and then you can go back”.

Fish Camp on the Copper River, Alaska

Finally made it to fish camp on Tuesday, August 7 and what a wonderful place to relax, fish and sightsee.  The Tinkers were wonderful hosts, telling us we could stay for as long as we wanted.  They were leaving on Thursday to return home to Fairbanks for a grandson’s birthday, so we pulled out the same day.  This a view of the Copper River.

 Sockeye

Fish camp was so unique.  They had a kitchen, a gathering room (tarp covered from the rain), an outhouse (no, I didn’t want to bring this one home), a well, a septic, electricity, a big storage building for fishing gear and multiple freezers and parking spots for at least 7-8 rvs.  The Tinkers have a legal/registered fish wheel and they catch and process enough salmon for 20 families they tell us.

In the meantime, they hooked up the boat and took us grayling fishing on the Gulkana River where we got into a few graylings, a few schools of sockeye, kings on their upstream travels and eagles, eagles, eagles!  The Alaska pipeline goes over the top of the river, too.  The Alaska Fish and Game closed all King salmon fishing because they say their numbers are too low.  However, the “escapement” numbers are up, meaning enough King salmon had traveled up stream to spawn.

The next day, Mike took Connie and I to the Gakona River to try for some Sockeye salmon.  No such luck, but a beautiful day and a beautiful river.

And again, more eagles !

We said our good-byes the next morning and headed for the Yukon, British Columbia and home.  Still miles and miles to go.

 

 

Copper River Detour

In spite of all of our good intentions, we just didn’t make it to the “Tinker’s” fish camp on the Copper River when we planned.  There was more incredible Alaska scenery that we just could not pass up or absorb driving through.  The road from Anchorage to fish camp is the Glenn Highway or Hwy 1.  The sights and scenery on this highway are not to be missed and by golly, we didn’t!  We stopped at a small but sweet RV park in the mountains with incredible views and Dall sheep on the steep slopes.  I didn’t put on the telephoto lens so the sheep aren’t very clear.  Just take my word for it.  This post will be mostly photos because it was just so beautiful.  Sorry

The river is the Matanuska.

The glacier is the Matanuska and the ice field is the Nelchina glacier.  Don’t worry; we won’t be giving a quiz after the trip is over.  Just enjoy.

As near as I can research and find out, this ridge is called Anthracite Ridge.  It was the only place we saw this coloring.

This is where we stayed the night.  Had an awesome pizza out of a brick oven and watched the Dall sheep up on the mountain.  It was cloudy and threatened rain, again.  The next morning before we took off to fish camp, the sky was mostly clear and the sun was shinning and it had rained during the night.  The air was incredible – so fresh and clean.

As luck would have it, we were stopped at a viewpoint and here came a small, yellow airplane (maybe a sightseeing plane) and to show the size of the mountains and canyons, I took pictures with the plane in them.

Be sure and click on these photos for full effect.

Our lesson for this part of the trip is:  When you come to something so interesting and beautiful, forget you have an itinerary.

Next posting from fish camp with Mike and Jacquie Tinker on the Copper River, Alaska.  Connie and I will be the first Freewheelers to take them up on their offer to visit and go fishing besides Pat and Sheri Tinker.

On the road, again.